Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Sphice of Life

There was this hoarding of Spice Jet Airlines, at the junction of Residency Road and M G Road near Mayo Hall. Perhaps, driven by the fear of incurring the wrath of the self-styled defenders of Kannada the hoarding had the name in Kannada too. It was as shown in the lower line in the picture above. Transliterated, it would be Sphice or Sfice. The line at the top shows the correct way of writing it.

I wrote to the marketing department of the company pointing out the error. I also asked them if the advertising agency's bills had been paid. I also wondered if the bill would have been paid if the same mistake had been made in the English version. I received no answer.

The self-styled defenders of Kannada blacken boards and hoardings in English but never boards which have bad or wrong Kannada. What a pity.

3 comments:

Nice one. Makes you smile, also makes you sad. Wanted to share another board-catastrophe, so to say. An enthusiasitc Kannada premi had written the name of his Dhaba, thus.In English- "The original dhaba".In Kannada- "varginal daabba"

I really have no grouse against them. They are illiterate, perhaps, and get someone to paint that with left over tar. But I was once surprised to see the board of a PUBLISHING COMPANY (nothing less mind you) with the English eastern as eestran in Kannada! Like Maadran kaafi!